Founded in 1965, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing (ACGL) provides education, funding, resources, and consulting services to hundreds of artists and 140 arts and cultural agencies throughout the capital region. Committed to empowering both the people who like art and the people who make art, the ACGL actively works with its constituents and alongside area leaders to promote the value of the arts and to make the arts possible in the greater Lansing region.
Here a few highlights of the Arts Council's current initiatives:
- Increasing grant opportunities for individual artists and cultural organizations. The new Arts Council Collaborative Arts Grant and Individual Artist Grants cultivate lasting support for local artists and encourage new project collaborations among area arts and cultural organizations. These, coupled with three other grant programs, allowed the Arts Council to administer a total $269,944 in arts grants last year.
- Administering an onsite business resource center and group meeting space. The Arts Council has moved to a welcoming new office at 1208 Turner Street in Old Town Lansing with dedicated space and business resources available to our constituents. This, plus personalized consultations and professional support, helped 103 cultural organizations and 67 individual artists last year.
- Connecting local artists and cultural organizations with regional economic, entrepreneurial, and workforce initiatives. In 2009, the Arts Council worked alongside the City of Lansing, the City of East Lansing, Michigan State University, and many others, to develop a Cultural Economic Development Plan for Greater Lansing's urban center. This plan will become the road map for using the creative sector to develop our local economy, with its implementation beginning in 2010.
- Representing a stronger voice for support of arts and culture at the local level. In 2009 the Arts Council initiated a regional Arts-in-Action effort to help constituents with effective advocacy and to arrange one-on-one meetings with local legislators. In 2010, the Arts Council plans to continue and to build upon this important work.